1. Technical Field
Apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to a light source device and an optical scanner.
2. Description of Related Art
In an image forming apparatus such as a laser printer, typically, an optical scanner is provided as a part of an optical system for forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor. The optical scanner mainly comprises a light source device, a deflector and an image forming optical system. A beam of light emitted from the light source device is deflected by the deflector so that an outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor (a target surface) is scanned with the beam of light. The image forming optical system causes the beam of light deflected by the deflector to focus on the target surface to be scanned, to form an image thereon.
One example of such a light source device of the optical scanner, known in the art, includes a holding member for holding a light-emitting element such as a semiconductor laser, and a ledge or projection for mounting a coupling lens is provided at the holding member. The coupling lens in this example is located in place on the ledge and fixed thereon with an ultraviolet curing adhesive.
The adhesive in this example is applied only to one spot at a bottom of a peripheral edge of the coupling lens. Accordingly, shrinkage of the adhesive in the curing process would disadvantageously cause the optical axes of the light-emitting element and the coupling lens to become misaligned with each other (particularly vertically in this example), which would render proper optical axis alignment difficult to achieve.
With this in view, one or more aspects of the present invention have been made in an attempt to provide an improved light source device in which misalignment involved in fixing a coupling lens to a holding member with an adhesive can be significantly reduced, and an optical scanner including such an improved light source device.